Swarm Report Feb. 20: Women’s basketball and softball secure close wins, baseball falls short

Each day The State Hornet will recap all the action from the day of sports at Sacramento State. Sunday Sac State baseball dropped the rubber match of their series to Arizona State and women’s tennis fell to UC Davis, remaining winless. Graphic by Max Connor

Jordan Parker and Max Connor
February 21, 2021

Sacramento State baseball team falls 2-1 against Arizona State University

The Sac State baseball team (1-1) lost a close game to Arizona State (1-1) 2-1 on Saturday.

The Hornets got the go ahead runner on base in the ninth but were unable to repeat their ninth inning magic from Friday when catcher Dawsen Bacho hit a grand slam to give the Hornets a 4-2 lead and an Opening Day win.

Junior Travis Adams started for the Hornets going 4 ⅓ innings giving up 7 hits and 2 runs while junior Jack Zalasky and sophomore Rylan Tinsley combined to shut down the Sun Devils the rest of the way.

The Hornets offense struggled to push runs across leaving 9 runners on base. The only run came from an opposite field home run from senior utility player Dylan McPhillips in the 4th inning.

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Watch out for the wall!#NCAABaseball x 🎥 @SacStBaseball pic.twitter.com/8xraiaU2tE

— NCAA Baseball (@NCAACWS) February 20, 2021

The Hornets will face the Sun Devils one more time Sunday at 11:35 a.m. looking to take the rubber match of the series.

Sac State softball team shuts down Cal 3-0 on Saturday

The Hornets (3-5) were held scoreless until the fourth inning when designated hitter Carley Morfey hit an RBI single. Katie Vretzos, second base, got the scoring started with an RBI sacrifice fly in the bottom of the fifth and was followed by an RBI walk from Morfey.

The Hornets were able to ride a dominant pitching performance from sophomore Marissa Bertuccio who tossed a five shutout innings on 114 pitches. Bertuccio has only allowed six earned runs to go along with 18 strikeouts in her five appearances this season and dropped her season ERA to an impressive 1.52 on Sunday.

Next up the Hornets will play Long Beach State at 12:30 p.m. on Saturday in the first game of the Fresno State Tournament scheduled for the duration of next weekend.

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Bertuccio throws a 5-hit shutout to lead the Hornets to a 3-0 home win over Cal. First win over the Bears since 2009. Morfey had a pair of RBIs. Hanson, Day and Robles each scored runs. #StingersUp pic.twitter.com/QsRzEHs8lK

— Sacramento State Softball (@SacStSoftball) February 20, 2021

Women’s basketball wins second game of the season against Southern Utah

The Sac State women’s basketball team (2-17, 2-14 Big Sky) got their second win of the season against Southern Utah University (9-6,4-3 Big Sky) 73-66 Saturday at the Nest.

Junior point guard Milee Enger led the way with 17 points while junior forward Tiana Johnson added a double-double with 14 points and 10 rebounds.

The game was tied at 50 entering the fourth quarter until Enger and junior guard Summer Menke took over, each scoring 8 points in the final quarter to help give the Hornets the seven point victory.

The Hornets will look to maintain momentum when they travel to face a last place Weber State team that is 0-17 on the season.

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Run it back! Here are the highlights from today’s 73-66 win over Southern Utah. #StingersUp 🐝🏀 pic.twitter.com/DzlfeXEXXV

— Sacramento State Women’s Basketball (@SacStateWBB) February 20, 2021

Men’s basketball loses a blowout to Southern Utah Southern Utah

The Southern Utah men’s basketball team (15-3, 8-2 Big Sky) continued their domination at home and against Sac State (7-8, 4-6 Big Sky), beating up on the Hornets in a 20 point blowout.
The Hornets have struggled the last few weeks dropping five of their last six games.

Sac State’s core of seniors, Ethan Esposito, Bryce Fowler and Christian Terrell combined to score 43 points but the rest of the roster could only chip in 12 more points.

The Hornets struggled from the 3-point line shooting 3-17.

The game was close going into the half but the Thunderbirds exploded in the second half outscoring the Hornets 42-25.

Sac State returns home Thursday to face Weber State (14-5, 9-3 Big Sky) that sits third in the Big Sky Conference standings.

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Final 📊
Esposito – 16 pts, 8 reb, 1 blk
Fowler – 14 pts, 4 reb, 5 ast
Terrell – 13 pts, 2 stl
McCullough – 6 pts, 2-3 3FG
Jones – 4 pts, 2 blk
Hector – 2 pts, 5 reb, 1 blk
Davis – 2 pts

— Sacramento State Men’s Basketball (@SacHornetsMBB) February 20, 2021

Sac State men’s tennis losses 4-2 to winless Grand Canyon

Freshmen Rudolfs Aksenoks and Mark Keki secured singles victory on Saturday but Sac State men’s tennis dropped their match 4-2 against Grand Canyon.

Grand Canyon secured the doubles point with victories of 6-3, 6-1.

Sac State will host Santa Clara Wednesday, Feb. 24 at 1 p.m..

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About the Writers

Jordan Parker, editor in chief

Jordan Parker is the editor-in-chief of The State Hornet. He took the helm of one of the largest news organizations in the Sacramento region in May 2021 and leads the newsroom staff as well as all editorial content published on the website and its affiliated social media channels.

Max Connor, editor in chief

Max Connor joined The State Hornet as a transfer student in fall 2019, became the managing editor in spring 2020, and is the editor-in-chief for the 2020-21 school year. Before joining The State Hornet, he was an editor and reporter for The Connection at Cosumnes River College. In addition to being the editor-in-chief, he created the award-winning podcast "Max's Table" for The State Hornet all about his love of food, restaurants, cooking and people. More than anything, he is a devoted husband and father to three young children.